Kiō

Kiō (棋王) is one of the eight major title tournaments in professional shogi. The word means the "king of the board" (i.e. it is a combination of the kanji characters for board (棋) and king (王)).

Overview
The tournament started in 1974 as a continuation of the Strongest Player Tournament (最強者決定戦 (Saikyōsha Ketteisen)) held from 1961 to 1973, which itself was a continuation of the 9-dan, 8-dan and 7-dan Tournament (九, 八, 七段戦 (Kyū, Hachi, Nanadansen)) held from 1954 to 1956 and its successor the Japan Cup (shogi) (日本一杯争奪戦 (Nihon'ichihai Sodatsusen) held from 1957 to 1960. The Kiō tournament was promoted to a major title tournament in 1975. The championship match is held from February to March. The challenger for the Kiō title is determined by the first and second preliminary rounds. In the second round, the losers in the semi-finals and final play consolation games, then the winners of the final and consolation-final advance to a two-game playoff. The winner of the consolation games has to win both games to become the challenger while the winner of the final has to win only one of the two games. The first player to win three games in the championship becomes the new Kiō titleholder.

Lifetime Kiō
Lifetime (Eisei) Kiō is the title given to a player who won the championship five times in a row. Active players may qualify for this title, but it is only officially awarded upon their retirement or death. In 1995 (the 20th Kiō Match), Yoshiharu Habu won his fifth Kiō title in a row, thus becoming the first professional to qualify for the title. In 2017, Akira Watanabe won his fifth title in a row to join Habu as the only professionals to have accomplished this feat.

Winners
The following table shows a list of past winners.

Records

 * Most titles overall: Yoshiharu Habu, 13
 * Most consecutive titles: Yoshiharu Habu, 12 in a row (1991-2002)